Viral Marketing

Introduction

You probably already know that one of the most effective forms of marketing happens to be word-of-mouth marketing. When someone hears about a product or service from someone they know, it’s much more powerful than hearing the same message from the company selling the product. After all, the company has a stake in the situation!

For many years, word-of-mouth marketing has been something most companies had to hope for. There was little they could do to actually attract word-of-mouth other than providing a great product and excellent customer service.

Then some smart marketers realized they could actually ignite this kind of marketing on their own. They started out with “publicity stunts”, but over the years, this has evolved into what we now call “viral marketing”.

In this report, you’re going to learn some ways you can get viral marketing working for you!

What makes a successful viral marketing campaign? Why do some marketing pieces go viral and others do not? How can you make sure your own campaigns perform well?

These are all very common questions regarding viral marketing. And there are no easy answers to any of them. It’s easy to look at successful campaigns and say, “Oh, well that campaign was successful because…” However, what made that campaign work might not necessarily work for a similar campaign.

The thing about viral marketing is that you can never fully predict how people will react to something. You can spend thousands of dollars on market research and still not have a truly accurate picture of how people will react to a live campaign in the real world.

The truth is that even multi-million dollar marketing agencies don’t always get it right. In reality, most viral marketing campaigns never actually go viral at all. They are created for that purpose, but they don’t work.

All you can do is create a campaign that has a good chance to go viral. There are no guarantees!

Humor – Many successful viral campaigns contain an element of humor, often revolving around it.

Shock Value – Many successful campaigns have some shocking or outrageous elements.

Uniqueness – For a campaign to go viral, it usually has to be something people haven’t seen before.

Value – Sometimes simply offering a truly outrageous deal such as something good for free or at a ridiculously low price is enough to get a campaign to go viral.

Sympathy – Many viral campaigns include an element of sympathy. For example, commercials for the ASPCA show cute animals that have been mistreated. People talk about these videos, because they are very emotional.

While these elements exist in most viral campaigns, they aren’t always enough to cause a campaign to generate buzz. Even when they do, they often don’t generate the level of buzz you’re hoping for.

There have been thousands of funny and unique television commercials that have come out in the last year or so, but only a handful of those are truly memorable enough to go viral.

It’s difficult to separate the successes from the failures, because at first glance they all seem to be similar. A funny commercial is a funny commercial, right? But it’s not that simple. Simply being funny is not enough to get people talking.

When you’re working on a viral campaign, one of the most important things you should realize is that there is no way to guarantee success with viral marketing. It’s just not possible. No matter what you do, you are helpless once the campaign is released. You’re at the mercy of the whims of the public.

Just understand that not every viral campaign will succeed. You should make sure to incorporate as many of the elements as you can, but in the end, the public will decide what it likes.

Don’t give up if you create a campaign that doesn’t go viral. Simply try again with a new campaign.

Viral Opt-Ins

One of the best ways to use viral marketing is to build an email list. Many people concentrate on sending viral traffic to their sales pages, but it’s a better idea to send that traffic to a squeeze page in order to build your list.

Let’s say you have a product you’ve just released, and you are trying to build buzz around that product. You could send all of your traffic straight to the sales page, but what if people don’t buy right away? They might never return, and they would be lost forever.

However, if you sent that traffic to a squeeze page and offered them some sort of freebie to join your email list, you could email them several times about your product, increasing your chance to make a sale.

Additionally, you could market to that person many times over the coming years. Whenever you released a new product or wanted to promote a product as an affiliate, you would have your email list to do so.

This increases the effectiveness of your viral campaigns, because it gives you people to market to even if future campaigns don’t do as well. They become long-term customers.

When you build a squeeze page, try to offer users something related to your viral campaign. If your campaign is a funny video of a golfer missing his swing several times, you might offer a free report about how to improve your golf swing accuracy.

Build your freebie to speak to the market. Make sure it’s something they would really appreciate, and make it high-quality so they expect that your paid product will be even better.

Inside your freebie, you can put marketing for your paid product. This way, you’re marketing to people in your viral video, in your freebie, and on your mailing list, as well.

Everything you do should be about maximizing the effectiveness of your campaigns. Make sure you’re marketing your product every chance you get, and that you’re building your list so you can market to them over and over instead of losing them forever.

Viral Videos

Perhaps the easiest type of content to get to go viral is video. People just tend to react better to videos, because not everyone has the capacity to fully understand and comprehend the written word in the same way they understand video.

Videos are also very easy to share. One quick link is all someone needs to send someone to your video, and it’s easier to convince someone to watch a video than it is to convince them to download written material and read it.

Of course, creating viral videos can be tricky. Remember, you can’t guarantee something with go viral to the extent you would like it to. However, most videos have the potential to bring in traffic, even if they don’t go viral in a big way.

When creating a video, try to remember these tips:

Don’t automatically use humor. Not all markets will respond well to humor, and it could hurt more than it helps. Try to anticipate what your target customer would be interested in.

Make sure you don’t offend your target market. Many viral campaigns fail because they don’t properly anticipate a negative reaction from their audience. This is especially true in humorous pieces, which can backfire easily.

Be certain to edit the audio and video carefully. Any distracting camera problems, color issues, or audio anomalies can detract from your message.

Make sure you deliver your marketing message! So many people concentrate on creating a video that will go viral that they actually forget to add their marketing to the video! Don’t forget this crucial element.

Concentrate on providing a quality video that people will enjoy, and the viral element should take care of itself.

Viral Written Material

While video is usually more effective for viral marketing than writing, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes good written material can easily go viral. It depends on your target market, and what you offer.

I have seen free eBooks downloaded over half a million times! That’s some powerful marketing! Not all material will be downloaded this often, but can you see the potential?

When creating written material for viral marketing campaigns, you need to ensure that you create material people will truly want to read. Don’t write about what you want to write about. Write what people want to read!

I know that sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how many people fail in this aspect. They write whatever they happen to want to write about, without caring what their readers want.

Written material is usually educational. How-to products are common, as are advice pieces. Many people choose to give away a free chapter of their main product, or they write a product that complements their product very well.

Let’s say your product is an electronic cigarette that helps people quit smoking. You could write a report on ways to quit smoking, including your own product as one of the top methods. Then you could offer this as a free report.

Some people prefer to keep their free reports behind an opt-in, which is sometimes a good idea. However, if your viral marketing actually is a free report, this may not work as well.

People won’t be so quick to tell others about your report if they know the person will have to sign up to your email list to get it. They generally want to tell people about stuff they can get quickly and easily, with no hassles. That’s why video can work so well. If you want written material to work that well, it might be a good idea to avoid requiring people to opt-in.

However, you can certainly offer an optional opt-in on the page where you give away your report. Offer people a discount on your product as an incentive for signing up, or maybe give them a 7 day email course by autoreponder that expands on the content in the report.

This will help your content go viral more effectively, while still giving you the opportunity to build your list.

6 Red Hot Tips To Get Your Articles Read

There are many people who dread having to write papers or articles. Many just feel like it seems to be too much work and it all just goes to waste when no one reads the. To some people, reading articles seems like work to, especially if the article is boring and very bland. Well, articles are supposed to be read, that’s their purpose to impart your message and information. If it is not read then it is a waste of time and effort.

But all the same, articles have to be written to be read. It’s just a matter of making them good. Making a good article doesn’t have to be strenuous and straining. There are just some points needed to be reminded of, and some guides to follow. Once you get the hang of it, writing articles could be fun, as well as profitable for you and your site.

Of course, writing articles must be about something you know about, that’s why if you own a site, you probably is knowledgeable about that certain topic and theme. When you write about it, you won’t have a hard time because you already know what it is and what it’s about. It’s just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting.

To make sure that your articles get read and enjoyed, here are six red hot tips to get your articles read. These tips will make your articles readable and interesting.

1) Use short paragraphs. When the paragraph are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it It can get quite confusing and too much of a hard work to read. The reader will just quickly disregard the paragraph and move on to much easier reading articles that are good to look at as well as read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, sometimes even a single word!

2) Make use of numbers or bullets. As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your4 article won’t look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and pizzazz to your articles shape.

3) Use Sub-headings to sub-divide your paragraphs in the page.Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another; the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.

4) Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header. If your title can entice a person’s curiosity you’re already halfway in getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilize keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise.

Use titles like, “Tips on making her want you more”, or “How to make her swoon and blush” .You could also use titles that can command people, for example, “Make her yours in six easy Ways”. These types of titles reach out to a persons’ emotions and makes them interested.

5) Keep them interested from the start to the finish.From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just don’t over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.

How to Be Happy - Secrets to Happiness

n this episode of The Charged Life, Brendon takes on how to cultivate more happiness in your life. This is Brendon unscripted and filmed in a single take without notes or prompter.

Brendon Burchard is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books include THE CHARGE, THE MILLIONAIRE MESSENGER, and LIFE'S GOLDEN TICKET. Larry King named him "one of the top motivation and marketing trainers in the world."

After a car accident at 19 years old inspired him to serve and succeed, and then having the blessings to become a multi-millionaire writer and trainer by the age of 32, Brendon has dedicated his life to helping others find their charge and share their voice with the world.

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just get into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.

5) Go on a getaway and just do something crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.